Bernard Books

Ladies, Choose the Boring Guy - Especially If You Have Issues is one of the most provocative, compeling and biblically thought provoking books for single women (and women in general) books I've ever read. The content far exceeded my expectations. If you have the need for answers of why you've made the relational choices you've made in the past - this is the book for you. Great book! I recommend it to every one.

"The revised edition of Land of Enchanters, edited by Bernard Lewis and Stanley Burstein, is well defined by its subtitle: "Egyptian Short Stories from the Earliest Time to the Present Day." The preface is informative, as are the brief introductions to the stories, which describe the travails and triumphs of royals, heroes, spirits and monsters. Typical are "The Story of Dalal," in which a princess wedded to an ogre plans an escape, and "The Island of the Serpent," wherein a shipwrecked sailor is aided by a giant serpent "plated with gold." Sales of this slim volume could get a boost if it is assigned to high schoolers and undergraduates." ~ From Publishers Weekly

A major city without zoning? This was news to me! Bernie Siegan studied Houston's non-zoning approach to land use. Siegan's point is that all land use control is by its very nature "exclusionary", and it is especially the poor and middle class who are hurt by it. A 1971 comparison of rents in Houston and Dallas revealed renters' costs to average 15% higher in Dallas; the two cities are comparable in every way except that Dallas has had zoning ordinances since the 1930s while Houston has never had one.

Siegan says that government "solutions" to land use and housing problems have been primarily political moves that imposed huge costs upon the middle and low income people who could least afford them. Environmental nuisances have been permitted to continue and even expand, but nonagressive uses of land are prohibited in order to satisfy polically powerful minorities. Anyone living near a BFI landfill is familiar with the politics of zoning and land use. Studies indicate that in addition to boosting renter's costs, zoning imposes other hardships that are less easy to identify. And rent controls, building codes, rehabilitation subsidies, and public housing all hurt rather than help low-income families.

Siegan believes that "the least fallible of city planners is the free market". He would like to see the creation and enforcement of voluntary building codes, voluntary covenants to restrict land uses rather than zoning, and landowner planning within a framework of land and environmental property rights. For more information, I believe this author did some work for the Association of Rational Environmental Alterntives (AREA) headed by Dick Bjornseth. I also recommend Seymour I. Toll's "Zoned American" (NY: Grossman, 1969).

Karl Unruhs book is the standard work about the Langemarck-Myth. He analyses in 18. Chapters over 200 pages the true background of this legend of november 1914 by examining the army-reports of the German troups fighting in Flandern, Belgium agains british, french and belgium soldiers. Unruh answers the most important questions of Langemarck (Did German Soldiers sing the Deutschlandlied? Where most of them really students? What about their military education?) by reconstructing the battles of Langemarck, Dixmuide, Beselare and Bixschote. Two maps make it easy for the reader to follow the authors explanations. Unruh is not an historian, he is a book-dealer, but because of that the subject is in a very precies way recherched and written in a very easy language. Currently it is the best book about the Langemarck-Myths.

For centuries linguists have attempted to explain why languages change: why, for example, does the word order of Spanish differ from that of Latin? The author persuasively argues that languages change, not in a random way, but because they are driven by evolutionary pressures of natural selection, pressures that favor functional and economical alternatives. Anyone interested in the application of Darwin's theory of evolution to linguistic change should read this well researched and informative book.

This is a great book for anyone looking to get a sense of the field of language policy. Spolsky has a clear writing style that makes the book easy to follow, along with a comprehensive index. He also manages to combine a broad overview of the subject with detailed case studies of various countries on different continents. It is a great starting point for anyone with an interest in the politics of language.

Along with Paynes "Describing Morphosyntax" (ISBN: 0521588057), this book will help any student -- or entertain any enthusiast --of languages or linguistics. It treats various types of syntactic theory in a manner that (rarely among such useful works) is clear, engaging and (in places) enthralling. While drawing on the familiar "old standards" for grammatic comparison (Russian, Dyirbal, Yakut, Hikxaryana, Japanese, etc), the way comparisons are drawn between systems reveals isomorphisms and patterns that are certainly elegant and perhaps beautiful. Comrie has, as ever, produced a thing of wonder.

I had the good fortune to have Bob Lapham make a presentation to our oprganization before he passed away. For history buffs, this is a must read on WW II

Of all the travel books about Antarctica we purchased, this was the most useful. The pictures and descriptions capture the essence of a typical visitor's view of Antarctica. We even purchased additional copies for our friends who dream of going. I hope you get to visit this incredible continent!

Have been waiting for his next thriller after 'The Manila Galleon', and I was not disappointed: the Last Patriot has a gripping plot and is written with great passion. A true page-turner, hard to put down! His knowledge of the East is amazing. Looking forward to his next novel!